ALBANY – Hockey bags hid thousands of pounds of marijuana that three men smuggled into the United States from Canada for several years.

Colin Stewart was the final one of the trio of co-conspirators in the crime to be sentenced. In U.S. District Court in Syracuse on Monday, the Elgin, Quebec, man was given 135 months in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby.

Allan Peters of Malone was sentenced to 144 months in prison on Feb. 12, 2015, and, last May, Mathieu Forget was given a prison term of 120 months.

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Ringleader

Stewart admitted to running the show, organizing the smuggling through the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation, paying his co-conspirators and also bringing marijuana across the St. Lawrence River himself, according to a joint press release from United States Attorney Grant C. Jaquith and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge James J. Hunt of the New York Division.

The cannabis, hidden in hockey bags and smuggled in between 2005 and 2011, was intended for distribution throughout the Northeast.

Forget, who was extradited to the United States from Canada for prosecution, admitted before his sentencing that he had carried hundreds of pounds of marijuana across the St. Lawrence via boat at least 20 times.

He also said that, on 30 other occasions, he helped smuggle hundreds of pounds of the drug in vehicles to locations in New York and New England.

The U.S. Border Patrol seized about 250 pounds of marijuana from the smuggling ring in May 2009 in North Hudson in Essex County.

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Joint probe

Stewart, also extradited from Canada, was ordered by Suddaby to serve five years of post-imprisonment supervised release and pay a $10,000 fine.

His prosecution was the result of a joint probe by the Drug Enforcement Agency, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations, New York State Police, St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Police Department, Akwesasne Mohawk Police Services and the district attorneys of Franklin and Clinton counties.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Katherine E. Kopita, and Douglas G. Collyer.